Logged out
Access All our Essays in an Instant
Swap your work for FREE access, or pay £4.99 for instant access
Critically examine the via negativa as an approach to understanding the nature of God.
Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Fri Jun 03 2005
Page Preview
On the left is an image preview of every page of this document, and below are the first 150 words with formatting removed:
Critically examine the via negativa as an approach to understanding the nature of God. The via negativa, or the apophatic way, is a theory in religious language which states that it is possible to discuss God by saying what He is not, as opposed to what He is (the via positiva). The via negative approach postulates that through saying what God is not, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of God himself as we are learning information about him, even though we are not learning exactly what God is. The via negativa was popularised by mystics such as St John of the Cross, St Augustine and Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite. These mystics believed that every positive quality attributed to God (the via positiva), such as God is all-loving, all-knowing and all-good, must always be balanced by the recognition that human language is inadequate when trying to describe the ineffable and...
Get instant access
- Instant, unlimited access to our documents in full
- Swap your work for free access, or pay £4.99
- To see the full version of this document and 150,044 others
